


exposure therapy

by milkcartonkid



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, M/M, No Plot/Plotless, Panic Attacks, Rated T for some cursing, and not that romantic cuz i just wanted to write smthn quick, basically 3500 words of shadow and sonic snipping at each other, but i had to make shadow and sonic kiss a little, exaggeration of sonics fear of water for the drama of it, kind of, mostly on shadows part..., shadow dotes on sonic in his own slightly abrasive way, use of claws/paws instead of fingers/hands
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-16
Updated: 2020-06-16
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:15:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24761431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/milkcartonkid/pseuds/milkcartonkid
Summary: “Stop! I’m gonna die!” Sonic gasps, scrabbling for purchase at Shadow’s forearms, “I’m gonna drown, Shadow, you’re drowning me—”“Sonic,” Shadow sighs, “It’s waist deep. You’re standing.”Sonic looks down. He is, in fact, standing. “...Oh.”-Shadow tries to help Sonic get over his fear of water, with mixed results.
Relationships: Shadow the Hedgehog/Sonic the Hedgehog
Comments: 17
Kudos: 192





	exposure therapy

**Author's Note:**

> me: *posts only wangxian fics, has like 8 other mdzs projects open*  
> also me: haha silly gay hedgehog go fast!!
> 
> no beta please excuse any mistakes and/or oddities

“For the last time, Amy, I  _ really _ don’t want to go to the beach.” 

Amy leans over the table to point a threatening claw onto Sonic’s chest. “Yes you do. All of us are going, and last time you didn’t get to go on a group activity you called us every three minutes and when we got back you had ripped up every pillow in your house.”

“Listen,” Sonic protests weakly, “That- okay. I just think we can choose an activity other than the beach.”

“Like what?” Tails pipes up, “We already all agreed on it anyway, y’know.”

“Yeah, without me!” Sonic wails, dropping his face into the table.

“Not our fault you never check the group chat.” Amy says primly.

Sonic jabs an accusing claw to his left at Shadow. “ _ He _ never checks the group chat.”

Shadow pushes Sonic’s claw down without looking. “That doesn’t matter in this conversation because  _ I’m _ not too scared of water to go.”

Sonic gasps, scandalized. “I am  _ not _ scared of water!”

Knuckles chooses that moment to pay attention. “One time I accidentally kicked him off the edge of Angel Island and when I brought him back up he was traumatized. I didn’t see him for three weeks.”

“I think,” Tails starts, “I think maybe the water was a secondary part of that, considering you roundhouse kicked him off of Angel Island, I think there might be a factor here other than the water—”

“We’re getting off track,” Amy cuts in, “We all know about your debilitating aquaphobia, Sonic. I think it would be very good for you if we could find the root of that fear and eliminate it.”

“I think it would be good if we didn’t,” Sonic suggests instead, which he thinks is a very strong counterpoint. Amy levels him with a flat look.

“Okay,” Amy continues, “So let’s start with reasons  _ why  _ you’re scared of the water.”

Sonic shifts to the side so that his chin rests on top of Shadow’s paws. “Tell her to leave me alone, Shadow.”

“Leave him alone,” Shadow says automatically, then looks up from his phone with a furrowed brow. “Wait, what? No. Answer the question, Sonic.”

“You people hate me!” Sonic cries dramatically, sitting upright. “Man, I don’t know. Water is unpredictable. There could be anything in there.” 

Amy looks at him with a raised eyebrow. “Like what?”

“I don’t know, like…” Sonic thinks for a second. “Leviathans.”

Tails squints in bewilderment at Sonic. “Levia- What? You think there are leviathans in a five-foot deep swimming pool?”

“Maybe.”

“No you don’t,” Knuckles corrects, flicking him on the forehead, “You just can’t swim. That’s why I had to fish you out on Angel Island in the first place.”

“I hate it here,” Sonic grumbles. Knuckles pats his paw in mock comfort.

“Let’s start there!” Amy chirps. “We can just do swim lessons with you, and then you’ll have nothing to fear!”

“I would rather  _ die _ than take swim lessons,” Sonic says with as much disgust as he can muster. “There is nothing in this world that can ever convince me to take  _ swim lessons _ .”

Knuckles looks at him seriously. “What if Eggman was going to destroy the universe and the only way to stop him was to take swim lessons?”

“I would say goodbye, world,” Sonic answers immediately. 

“Okay, then what if I was a dying old man and my last wish on my deathbed was for you to take swim lessons? What would you do then?”

“I would say goodbye, Knuckles.”

Knuckles narrows his eyes. “I see where I stand. Okay, what if it was Shadow?”

“I would kill him for being a clone because Shadow is immortal. Step up your hypotheticals, Knux.”

Tails interrupts, snapping like he’s figured something out. “Hey! Who knows if Eggman might really use water to his advantage some day? You can’t just be unprepared for that.”

“That’s different, you know it,” Sonic sighs, “If he  _ actually _ were to pull something I’d have to jump in the water for, then I guess I’d… I mean, I’d  _ have _ to do something.”

“Exactly!” Tails leans in closer, gesturing animatedly, “If we can somehow stage some sort of reason you absolutely  _ need  _ to be in the water, after it’s over and you realize nothing bad happened, you might be less afraid!”

“Oh!” Amy brightens, nodding, “If the pressure is enough to spur you into action, it could work! But what kind of incentive short of Eggman is going to do that?”

“We could tie Tails to a stone and throw him in the ocean,” Knuckles offers.

“Or we could not do that,” Tails says immediately, “But something of that sort of magnitude would certainly work.”

“ _ Guys _ .” Sonic looks at them incredulously. “I’m not being dramatic when I say if you did something like that to me I would genuinely pass out from the stress.”

Amy pauses. Tails falters. Knuckles laughs and turns it into a cough.

Shadow catches their attention with his loud sigh of disdain. When he notices them looking, he rolls his eyes and puts his phone down on the table. “You guys aren’t going to get anywhere. None of that will help his fear, he’ll just have a panic attack and then it’ll magnify it in the long run.”

Amy presses her lips together, at a loss for what else to do. “So? You have an idea?”

“Yes. Easy. Exposure therapy.”

“ _ Huh?” _ Sonic feels affronted at the very thought.

“If you slowly acclimate to being in water in a safe environment, then you’ll lose the instinctual fear reaction you keep having.”

Everyone is nodding along like this makes sense, but Sonic furiously shakes his head.

“No, absolutely not. Do you know how embarrassing that would be?”

Shadow rolls his eyes again like that isn’t a relevant concern. “Do you have other ideas, genius?”

“Something that  _ doesn’t _ involve public humiliation!”

“Is it really public humiliation if it’s—“ Tails looks around at the table and counts everyone on his claws, “—three, four… only five people?”

“ _ Yes! _ ”

Shadow shrugs. “If you’re so worried about embarrassing yourself, I’ll just take you by myself.”

“I don’t trust you two alone without a chaperone,” Knuckles starts, then stops when Shadow cuts him a glare.

“No comments from the peanut gallery. And that’s worse, anyway,” Sonic adds, crossing his arms and slumping in his seat, “I'm still embarrassing myself, but to the person who is most likely to use it as blackmail.”

Shadow narrows his eyes. “You think you can somehow manage to make a bigger fool of yourself in front of me than you already have? As if anything is going to be  _ half _ as embarrassing as the time with the duct tape and the ceiling fan—”

“Okay!” Sonic shouts loudly, shooting upright so fast his chair almost tips backwards, “Okay, fine! I’ll do the stupid water torture or whatever! I hate you guys. I’m gonna remember this shit in therapy.”

Sonic tunes out the desperate clamor of voices asking about the ceiling fan incident. When he scowls at Shadow, he has the nerve to look smug.

——

“I regret it! I changed my mind! Stop it or I’ll- I’ll break up with you, I’ll- Are you listening to me?! Let me go right now, I invoke my rights as a citizen and—”

“Don’t make me Chaos Control you right above the lake.”

Sonic shudders at the threat, but stubbornly keeps his heels dug in the ground, completely dead weight no matter how much Shadow shoves him forward.

“I wasn’t joking, Sonic, I’ll do it right now, watch me pull out the emerald. Are you looking? I’m gonna pull it out—”

Sonic cuts him off with a loud groan, suddenly falling slack. Shadow stumbles forward at the abrupt lack of resistance, but Sonic turns around both to catch him and to bury his face in his chest fur.

Shadow huffs but obligingly wraps his arms around Sonic’s back and rests his cheek on Sonic’s head. “What, you scared?”

“Hmghnmf,” Sonic says unintelligibly, which is enough of an answer. 

Shadow squeezes him around the middle. “Tell me what you’re scared of.”

“The water, dipshit.”

“Don’t be thick, you know what I mean,” Shadow sighs, squeezing him again with more force and eliciting a yelp, “What  _ about _ the water? And no made-up bullshit about sea monsters or whatever you told Amy. What are you really afraid of, here?”

Sonic is quiet for a minute at that, and idly pokes at Shadow’s fur instead of answering.  Shadow is patient enough to wait it out, keeping his paws locked at Sonic’s lower back.

“Drowning,” Sonic admits eventually, voice quiet, “And being helpless. There’s no security underwater, you know? I can’t even run. It feels claustrophobic while also being… too big. I don’t know if that makes sense.”

“Sense enough.” Shadow hums in thought. “Well. In the event of lack of oxygen, I assume your adrenaline rush will kick in and you’ll be fine. Probably.”

“Thanks, Shadow, that’s really reassuring,” Sonic cuts in dryly.

“But I’m not dropping you in the middle of the sea, Sonic. It’s a small lake, I doubt you could drown if you tried.”

“You can do anything if you try,” Sonic says, just to be contrary, then squeezes his eyes shut in defeat. “Just- Just take me in. I’m not gonna do it if you try to get me to walk in, just shove me or something.”

“How brave of you,” Shadow says, and Sonic doesn’t get the chance to ask if that was sarcastic or not before Shadow is picking him up under the arms and simply walking into the water. He feels the water rising up to him oh my god the water _keeps_ _rising—_

“Stop! I’m gonna die!” Sonic gasps, scrabbling for purchase at Shadow’s forearms, “I’m gonna drown, Shadow, you’re drowning me—”

“Sonic,” Shadow sighs, “It’s waist deep. You’re standing.”

Sonic looks down. He is, in fact, standing. “...Oh.”

“Stop shaking, your legs are unstable. That’s how you’ll fall.”

“I can’t just stop on command, do you think I’m doing it on purpose—”

Shadow kicks his legs out from under him. Sonic screams. 

“Stop shaking.” Shadow repeats when Sonic manages to get his legs to work properly again.

“I hate you,” Sonic growls, forcing his legs to stay still, “I would be so mad at you right now if I wasn’t doing a very good job at remaining calm.”

“A very good job,” Shadow repeats dubiously, then shakes his head. “Right. Okay, turn around.”

“Why?” Sonic asks distrustfully.

“So you can walk, dumbass. We’re not gonna just stand in the same spot for 30 minutes.”

“You said ‘slowly acclimating!’”

“Not that damn slowly,” Shadow nudges him insistently. “Do it. I won’t let you go if that’s what you’re worried about, just face the other way.”

“Fine,” Sonic grumbles, reluctantly turning around and minimally untensing only when Shadow’s paws fall to his waist. “I think you’re only doing this to look at my ass.”

Shadow snorts. “Don’t flatter yourself. Go, step forward, you know how to walk.”

“Arguable,” Sonic retorts as he very slowly walks  _ further _ \- he can’t believe he’s doing this- into the stupid lake, his breath hitching when the water laps higher.

Shadow pokes him in the side. “Look. Nothing’s happening, right? Shallow water isn’t going to kill you.”

“Are you saying deep water will?” 

Sonic can practically feel Shadow rolling his eyes. “Why are you like this? No, but if you can bear shallow water, you can learn to swim in it. Then you won’t have to worry as much about deep water.”

“I don’t like it when you’re smart in ways that inconvenience me, Shadow,” Sonic mutters.

“Unfortunately for you, inconveniencing you is the goal of all my actions,” Shadow tells him matter-of-factly, “Also, I’m going to let go of you now.”

Sonic’s paw shoots to grab Shadow’s wrist like a vice. “Like hell you are.”

Shadow tries to tug his paw back, huffing when Sonic doesn’t relent. “Sonic. You understand that I’m not gonna constantly be around to hold your paw every time you swim.”

“You could be, actually,” Sonic counters. Shadow looks at him flatly.

“Do you think if Eggman tied Tails to a stone and threw him in the water—”

“What is up with you people and tying Tails to stones?”

“—That you would have time to come find me so you wouldn’t be scared to go get him?”

“Possibly.”

Shadow brings his free paw up to flick Sonic in the side of the head. “Don’t be difficult, Sonic. You’re standing fine right now, aren’t you? What’s the difference if it’s on your own?”

“The difference is my personal sense of safety,” Sonic says, just to get the last word in as his grip on Shadow’s wrist goes slack in defeat. Shadow pats his shoulder once before his paws fall back to his own sides.

“See? You’re fine.”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Sonic repeats, mostly to convince himself, “Please don’t tell me to keep walking.”

“Well, since you already know, I don’t have to tell you…”

“You are so mean to me,” Sonic whimpers, taking a few more tentative steps forward despite his complaints.

“I know, I know,” Shadow agrees, unbothered. The quiet swish of water that proves that he’s still following behind Sonic is probably the only thing keeping him sane.

“I hate this,” Sonic rambles just to occupy himself as he continues inching forward, “I can’t believe you convinced me to do this. You owe me- you owe me something. I’ll cash in my debt later. Then you’ll be sorry—”

Sonic cuts himself off, suddenly blanching as he feels something disgustingly slimy wrap around his ankle.  His brain instantly screams that this thing is going to drag him down and kill him. The rational part of his brain, however, tells him that it’s just a plant, there’s nothing wrong and he doesn’t need to overreact. 

Unfortunately, the rational part of his brain right now is very, very small.

His breathing jumps from normal to slightly erratic and he tries to jerk away, but misjudges the force necessary for the action- as the plant breaks off at its root, he lurches to the side and drops right into the water. He absently hears himself scream as he falls, shrill and short, before he has the good sense to shut his mouth as the water surges over his face.

That’s about the only good sense he has, though, and he instinctively gasps for breath before realizing he shouldn’t have done that. Water floods his mouth and he chokes, but choking only brings  _ more _ water into his mouth, and there’s really no way out of this in his panicked mind. He feels like he’s going to die, and he wildly thrashes at the thought.

Despite the way it all feels like slow motion, he’s only down for a terrifying few seconds before he’s breaching the surface and taking gasping breaths for air. He realizes belatedly that Shadow had pulled him up and is currently yelling at him while repeatedly thumping his back to knock the water out of his mouth. He tries to parse Shadow’s words through the ringing in his ears.

“—and don’t ever do something as idiotic as to  _ open your mouth _ underwater again! Are you stupid?!” Shadow sounds pissed, but the tightness of his grip as he crushes Sonic to his chest betrays his concern. “Fucking hell, was that because of the little weeds? What happened?”

“I panicked,” Sonic sniffles, and something in it apparently sounds pitiful enough because Shadow stops bristling. 

“You’re shivering,” He notes quietly, “Shake your quills.”

Sonic obediently complies, sending water flying outwards. He feels marginally better now that he isn’t as terribly waterlogged and he’s had a moment to calm down, but the uncomfortable feeling of being cold and wet doesn’t leave. He shuffles up in Shadow’s arms to press his forehead to the crook of his neck. Shadow gives his temple a consoling kiss.

“I’m done, just take me home,” Sonic whines, “I thought seaweed wouldn’t be in lakes.”

“Maybe it was lakeweed,” Shadow suggests, deadpan, and Sonic laughs weakly into his shoulder.

“That was really bad. I didn’t know you had it in you.”

“Containing multitudes and all that,” Shadow hums, then shifts his hold on Sonic into a bridal carry with a quick motion. “Hold tight, princess.”

Sonic’s indignant noise is lost inside the warping space of Chaos Control.

——

Sonic squirrels out of Shadow’s arms as soon as they land inside his house, almost desperately attempting to escape the oncoming smothering.

Shadow, however, is well practiced in Sonic wrangling, and immediately grabs him by the scruff and plops him right down on the couch.

“Shadow, I’m fine,” Sonic groans when Shadow unceremoniously dumps multiple blankets on top of him, “Just uncomfortably damp at this point. Stop it, you don’t need to do this.”

“Don’t give me that shit,” Shadow scoffs, even as he meticulously wraps the blankets around Sonic’s shoulders, “I won’t have you catching a cold.”

“I don’t get sick,” Sonic informs him haughtily. 

“Right. I forgot idiots don’t catch colds.”

“ _ Hey! _ ”

Shadow ignores his offense in favor of disappearing into the kitchen. A couple minutes later, he returns with a mug of something steaming, pressing it into Sonic’s paws. “Here. Warm up. Don’t burn your tongue.”

Sonic sniffs curiously at the mug, then sighs contentedly when he catches the scent of rich hot chocolate. “Thanks, Shads. You don’t need to fret over me, though, honest.”

“I’m not  _ fretting,”  _ Shadow, who is obviously fretting, insists, “I was being serious. You’ll catch a cold if you don’t dry off properly, your fur is so thick. Are you okay?”

“ _ Shadow, _ ” Sonic groans, slinking further into his blanket pile, “Don’t sound like my mom, jeez. Listen, falling in just freaked me out at first, okay? I’m fine now, I’m not lying, don’t look at me like that!”

Shadow doesn’t drop his suspicious glare, but sighs in acknowledgement anyway. “I don’t mean to be overbearing. I… suppose I may have panicked a bit.”

Shadow pulls a face like being too genuine physically injures him and immediately follows it up with an insult. “You looked like a wet rat. It was disgusting, you should have seen yourself.”

“Ha ha, you’re so funny.” Sonic punches him in the arm, then takes him by the shoulder and pulls him down to kiss him. “Thank you, though. Really. I appreciate it.”

Shadow hums in what is supposed to be a noncommittal tone, but Sonic has spent enough time deciphering his nonverbal expressions to know he sounds pleased. “Did it help?”

“Huh.” Sonic considers this, sipping his hot chocolate. “Yeah, I think. I wasn’t doing too bad before I tripped. Ain’t that something?”

Shadow opens his mouth, but Sonic immediately covers it with his paw. “That does  _ not _ mean I’m ever doing that again. You can tell Amy that I did my best and I will never fucking subject myself to that kind of torment- Ew! Did you just lick me?! That’s it, I’m going to show  _ you _ what drowning feels like—!!”

——

After Sonic had spent twenty minutes cleaning spilled hot chocolate from the couch from the aftermath of their scuffle, Amy calls to inform him that she’s coming to his house to hear about how his impromptu date went.

“It wasn’t a date, it was the fires of hell,” Sonic mutters into the phone, “Can’t you just ask me right now?”

“No, because you’ll hang up on me and pretend you lost connection if you don’t want to answer me,” Amy says like this is obvious, and Sonic can’t really deny it. “Besides, I’m already outside your house.”

Amy hangs up. Sonic stares at the phone in disbelief. The doorbell rings.

Sonic makes a resigned noise onto Shadow’s shoulder. Shadow pinches him unhelpfully when he stands and moves to get the door.

“Shadow! That’s better, I won’t have to extort answers out of Sonic under threats of violence. How did it go?” Amy asks eagerly as soon as the door opens.

“He cried really hard and ran away before he even went in the water,” Shadow says plainly. 

“What—?!” Sonic sputters, springing off of the couch, “Don’t make shit up, you know I didn’t—”

“Yeah, I was just fucking with you,” Shadow continues. “It was fine. He didn’t die, so I’ll count it as a win.”

Amy turns wide, hopeful eyes to Sonic. “So that means you’re coming to the beach with us, right? Right?”

Sonic makes a show of groaning and sighing heavily. “Yeah, I  _ guess _ I am. But I won’t make any promises about swimming, you hear me?”

Amy cheers, and even Shadow gives him a look that’s half pleased and half amused. A small victory is still a victory, after all.

——

To his credit, when they do drag him along to the beach, Sonic willingly wades into the ocean.

But if he refuses to go any further than knee-deep and Shadow still has to keep a paw on his back to stop his legs from buckling, well. 

They can call it a happy compromise.

**Author's Note:**

> feel free to give me attention on my [tumblr!](https://milkcartonkidd.tumblr.com/) its new and im lonely and i want to talk to all of you <3


End file.
